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The wild and wacky Bartoli contraption

Marion Bartoli and father/coach Dr. Walter are known for their rather, er, unusual training methods.

But this one may be the greatest of all time.

Just look at this:

There are so many components to this. Where to begin?

The main thing seemed to be a series of resistance apparatuses that Dr. Walter hooked up to the fence. The problem was, Marion couldn’t get out of the stuff. So every time she had to stop, or wanted to sit down and take a drink, she had to drag herself against the contraption’s will to get to her chair.

There also seemed to be some sort of sound-effects machine (it’s that video-cam looking thing in the back of the court). We couldn’t figure out what it was at first because it sounded like breathing or grunting – sort of a double grunt – but it wasn’t Bartoli making the noises.

Dr. Walter had her hit 26 balls over the net that way.

Why 26? Who the heck knows.

The first time around, if she missed, he’d keep the number where it was.

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